


Fatherhood Isn't Easy

by The_Mouse_of_Anon



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: 7-year-old La'gaan is going to send Aurelius into an early grave from stress, Aurelius was a good dad, Family Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, adopted parent and child fluff, at least it's not the fish incident from when La'gaan was 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 14:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20341732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Mouse_of_Anon/pseuds/The_Mouse_of_Anon
Summary: Aurelius never would have guessed when he first came across a finned and green-scaled kisegra child in a back alley of Nanauve that the child would live or that he’d come to care about him so much… or that the child who had been dying when they met would ever be active enough to send him into a headache-inducing panic.“La’gaan, you arenotgoing to attempt to cook anything with magic in this house.”





	Fatherhood Isn't Easy

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote and posted this on tumblr back on 17 June 2018 for Father's Day, and was partly born from my frustration over the limited number of fics focusing on La'gaan. As ever, credit for the creation of Aurelius and some of La'gaan's background goes to the fantastic insuffera6le6itch on tumblr, whose fics have laid the groundwork for how I headcanon La'gaan's past.
> 
> And for anyone who wants it, [the tumblr version is here.](https://fire-fira.tumblr.com/post/174998984430/fatherhood-isnt-easy)
> 
> That said, enjoy the baby-La'gaan and the parental fluff ahead!

Aurelius never would have guessed when he first came across a finned and green-scaled kisegra child in a back alley of Nanauve that the child would live or that he’d come to care about him so much… or that the child who had been dying when they met would ever be active enough to send him into a headache-inducing panic.

“La’gaan, you are _not_ going to attempt to cook anything with magic in this house.”

Innocent wide red eyes locked on the old man with an almost betrayed look. “But you can do it,” he protested.

“That’s because I have the training to do it. You’ve only been reading for two months.”

“So?”

“So that means there’s entirely too much of a possibility for you to _misread_ a spell and hurt yourself while trying to cast it. And I _know_ you haven’t had time to memorize even one.” For a moment Aurelius hoped that would be enough to sway the guppy. Certainly, the way he was frowning thoughtfully was encouraging. And then La’gaan looked back up at him with a determined expression and the old man felt his heart sinking into his gut.

“So I’ll mem’rize it.”

“No.”

“In a week.”

“_No._”

“In _four days_.”

“Absolutely _not_.”

“_In a day._”

“_La’gaan you are NOT going to be casting magic in this house when you’ve only been reading for two months._” Aurelius had had a sibling and cousins who had been parents way back when, a sibling and cousins who had delighted in _being_ parents, _and_ whose children he had occasionally looked after when it had been needed. He tried to remember if any of them had ever mentioned anything about their children being stubborn, but 250-year-old memories could be as clear as a cloud of silt at times— especially since a civil war had been brewing at that time. He couldn’t remember a single instance of his sibling’s or his cousins’ children being this emphatically stubborn at only seven years old. Barely seven years old at that. La’gaan had only been seven for all of two weeks. Neptune help him.

“But _whyyyyyy_?”

As much as Aurelius _wanted_ to default to ‘Because I said so,’ he knew it would have been the absolute wrong tactic to take. So instead he settled for folding up his legs so he could sink down a little more to La’gaan’s level and gently said, “Because magic can be dangerous, Little One. It takes a lot of time and practice to do something like that safely, and if you don’t know what you’re doing you could get hurt.”

La’gaan gnawed on his lower lip thoughtfully at that. He still looked more sickly than Aurelius would like, too pale with fins that were still a little limp and circles under his eyes that no seven-year-old should have, but even so he looked far more healthy than he had when Aurelius had first found him. Even though it had been roughly a year, the fact that he’d been recovering at all was a miracle, let alone the fact that he was recovering so well.

“…How much?” La’gaan finally asked, the look in his eyes concerned and almost pleading.

Aurelius frowned, not understanding at first what the guppy was asking. “How much what?”

“How much would it hurt?”

Dear…

Sweet…

_Mother of Proserpina in the Winter!!!_

Aurelius wanted to facepalm. This was why talking about getting ‘hurt’ in a vague way to a child who already _knew_ pain and had _almost died_ was a terrible and horrendous idea that was bound to kill him through stress alone.

“…La’gaan, you could die if you tried it.”

And there again was that frown. “But you can do it.”

“And I already told you, I’ve been doing this for a long time and have the training to do it. If I didn’t have that training I could die.” Neptune’s _Beard_, he shouldn’t have to be casually discussing death with a seven-year-old. Unfortunately, it seemed like the only way to get La’gaan to take the danger seriously.

“Well how long did you train?”

Had any of his cousins ever wanted to rip out their beards (those that had them) over their children stressing them out? Because Aurelius was almost tempted to rip out chunks of his own. It was times like this that he wished his sibling and cousins were still alive so he could get advice— because being an uncle was one thing. Being a parent, he’d come to find, was a different matter _entirely_.

“A long time.”

“How long is long?”

Oh no.

“How long do you think is long?”

La’gaan mulled that over for a few long moments before hopefully guessing, “Two years?”

This child was going to kill him.

“Much longer than that, Little One.”

“Five years.”

“Longer.”

“Ten?” La’gaan was almost cringing now; apparently the thought of a decade spent doing anything was an eternity to him. Aurelius was almost relieved. Almost.

The old man shook his head, his shoulder-length silver-streaked brown hair floating around his head in a messy halo in response to the movement. “I’ve been training for a long, long, looooong, long time Little One.”

La’gaan frowned. “Tell me how long.”

“300 years.” Give or take a decade, but La’gaan didn’t need to know that.

“_Nooooo._” The way La’gaan said it wasn’t shocked or surprised, but with the absolutely certainty that Aurelius had to be lying.

“I’m sorry, it’s true.”

“No. Can’t be.”

“I’m afraid it is.”

“No one’s that old.”

“I am.”

“No you’re _not_.”

“I’m afraid I am.”

“You’d be dead.”

A smile tugged at Aurelius’s lips. “Do I look dead to you?”

“No.”

“Then how old do you think I am?”

“Old.”

This time he couldn’t repress the laugh that bubbled forth. “Come Little One, be more specific.”

He doubted La’gaan knew what ‘specific’ meant, but apparently the guppy got the idea when he grumbled, “20.”

Aurelius bit back another laugh and gently said, “20 is young Little One.”

“No it’s _not_. It’s old. _Really_ old. Older than… than… OLD.”

“I’ve been alive much longer than twenty years, and I’ve been learning how to control magic for much, much, longer. It’s not something you can learn in a few days.”

The look La’gaan gave him was probably the most dubious and disbelieving look he’d ever seen from a child that young in his entire life. Not knowing how to put into words what he was obviously thinking, La’gaan decided to switch back to the (much more important) matter at hand. “So why can’t I mem’rize magic?”

“Because it takes time and practice.”

And Aurelius’s sense of sinking dread came back in full the moment a look of realization dawned on La’gaan’s face.

“’relius… You know magic… And you’re old…”

Oh _gods_ this couldn’t end well, especially if the old man didn’t manage to stifle his building urge to laugh.

“Very old,” he agreed.

“…Teach me.” It was _almost_ a demand. Almost. But there was just enough of a hint of a question that it was obvious La’gaan was expecting him to say no.

On one hand Aurelius could easily point to a variety of reasons why he shouldn’t teach La’gaan— La’gaan was too young, too sick, too easily exhausted, too likely to hurt himself, too likely to misread things because he _had_ only been reading for two months (never mind the fact that the guppy had left Aurelius dumbfounded when he learned to read in the span of four weeks)— but on the other hand La’gaan’s stubbornness might easily have been the primary factor that had kept him alive. And if Aurelius wanted to make sure that La’gaan didn’t stubbornly pursue whatever he wanted to learn to the point of hurting himself, then it only made sense that it would be in La’gaan’s best interests to give him some guidance.

“_Aurelius_,” La’gaan pleaded. And there were the eyes that broke Aurelius’s heart and made him want to hold the guppy close and promise nothing bad would ever happen to him again. _Damn it._

“If I’m going to teach you, you have to promise me one thing Little One.”

La’gaan’s eyes brightened and his slightly limp fins perked up. “What? What do I have to promise?”

“Even if you get frustrated-,” seeing the look of confusion, he changed his word choice, “-if you feel like what you’re learning is going too slow, you won’t go far ahead and you won’t try something you haven’t done without me around.”

La’gaan almost pouted. “But you said I had to practice.”

“And you can practice with what I’ve already taught you. But I don’t want you trying something you don’t know how to do and getting hurt. Okay?”

La’gaan’s pout shifted to a frown as he thought that over with every last ounce of seriousness he had in his tiny kisegra body.

“La’gaan?”

“…Not even once?”

This child was going to be the death of him.

“_La’gaan_,” Aurelius said warningly.

“Okayyyy… I promise.” Despite how grudging the comment was at first, the guppy was _beaming_ at the end of it. It might have been Aurelius’s imagination, but La’gaan looked like he had a little more color than he’d had even a few minutes ago.

“But for _now_,” Aurelius scooped up La’gaan, earning a surprised squeal of laughter from the guppy, “I think it’s time for lunch.”

“Teach me after lunch?”

“Maybe after lunch if you’re not tired.”

“I won’t be tired!”

This guppy might put more silver in his hair than roughly 300 years ever had, but Aurelius had the feeling he was going to be grateful for every moment. No one had ever said parenting was easy, but he had to agree it was its own reward.


End file.
